EA EURO PURCHASE QUESION (SHAWN or someone EA plz)

[javadog]

Ok, just to try and get it all in one place and to be ready for the upcoming release, can you please cover the account(S) required to purchase EURO.

Background:

I already have the EA Downloader where I purchased and pulled Special Forces when it was released. I am ready and willing to purchase Euro but I have been hearing a lot of confusion as to what account(s) will be required to do so.

Is it TRUE that I will also need to have a GAMESPY account setup? Or are having legitimate Battlefield 2 and EA Downloader accounts all that is required to purchase/install/play Euro Forces?

If not, I heard rumor that the Gamespy account and the EA Downloader account need to be the same (ie, userid)

A quick synopsis and clarification would really be appreciated. This is NOT because of the need for multiple users on ONE computer. I am talking single user, single computer single account.

Thank you in advance for your time and answers

-Javadog

[Shawn]

Re: EA EURO PURCHASE QUESION (SHAWN or someone EA plz)

I'm going to cheat and paste most of my reply from another thread.

--
1. Use your ea.com account to login and purchase. You don't have to make a new one if you have one already. Pogo accounts or any ea.com account works fine.

2. When purchasing it will ask you for your BF2 login nickname. Just enter the nick you want to apply EF to. You can change it later if you change your mind. This is sometimes called the GameSpy nickname or the BF2 nickname. Same difference.

3. Download using the downloader. Make sure you don't have your downloader logged into a second different ea.com account. I did that without noticing and thought I broke it.

4. Click install in the downloader when it is ready.

5. Play the game normally. You don't need the downloader open, running or even installed at this point.

note: If you want to backup your download to CD then go to C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Downloader\cache\accountname\ and you'll see it there. You can re-download as many times as you like via the downloader though so this is just for you hardcopy fanatics.

--
Does that answer your questions?

[javadog]

Re: EA EURO PURCHASE QUESION (SHAWN or someone EA plz)

Right on my friend, thank you very much. Crystal now.

And yea, I am older, and run my own computer company, first thing i did was see where EA was dumping the cache files, and that day I backed them up to a DVD. I prefer to reload winblows every 6-8 months to get a clean fresh start (either ghosted image or from install cds) so, having the cache files on a DVD I can move back over quickly for install was very helpful.

I actually took it one step further, and when i launched the cache file from the EA Downloader, that (as I’m sure you know) blows up into an actual INSTALL directory with a setup.exe and everything *yay*

so burning that to a disk allows a user to run the install directly from a cd if they so choose.

Again, I appreciate you getting this clear, I learned something today (never would have thought that the bf2 account and the gamespy account name(s) were synonymous.

Appreciate your time

-Javadog

Btw, are you down in the bay area? If so, HI, I’m right up the street and around the corner in Sacramento!

[imported_DwarfVader]

Re: EA EURO PURCHASE QUESION (SHAWN or someone EA plz)

So my question is... Can we purchase it now and download it now.

I realize that just like SF we wouldn't be able to play it until the release date, but I for the life of me can't find where I would be able to purchase it at the moment. And from reading others posts it seems like other people are doing so.

[« R²» HKS]

Re: EA EURO PURCHASE QUESION (SHAWN or someone EA plz)

Right on my friend, thank you very much. Crystal now.

And yea, I am older, and run my own computer company, first thing i did was see where EA was dumping the cache files, and that day I backed them up to a DVD. I prefer to reload winblows every 6-8 months to get a clean fresh start (either ghosted image or from install cds) so, having the cache files on a DVD I can move back over quickly for install was very helpful.

I actually took it one step further, and when i launched the cache file from the EA Downloader, that (as I’m sure you know) blows up into an actual INSTALL directory with a setup.exe and everything *yay*

so burning that to a disk allows a user to run the install directly from a cd if they so choose.

Again, I appreciate you getting this clear, I learned something today (never would have thought that the bf2 account and the gamespy account name(s) were synonymous.

Appreciate your time

-Javadog

Btw, are you down in the bay area? If so, HI, I’m right up the street and around the corner in Sacramento!

Interesting we did it a similar way. Not wanting to download 1gig of SF everytime we formatted and re-installed windows we either copied the cache folder to another partition or hard drive or burnt it to dvd. Then re-installed EAdownloader then copied the cache folder back over again, then ran EAdownloader again and it would come up saying SF was ready to install.

We couldn't get that method you did to work, although maybe we missed something because it came up saying something about missing key, even if you copied over the eam file it made no difference. Could you explain this 2nd part of your method in more detail please.

Shawn I think a lot of people are put off using the EAdownloader because of the need to redownload it again when doing a format. I know I wouldn't have purchased anything again using this method unless I found a way of making a hard backup copy. Now I have it doesn't worry me as much. Especially if you consider this to be a future means of EA distrubiting media.

Say you buy SF, the EF then Armoured Fury, then the next booster pack *coughs* and any other content. Then also think if there are other games that in the future are bought this way. When it comes to doing a format and re-installing, people may have to spend days redownloading all this content.

Maybe EA could put up a how to FAQ on EAdownloader themselves with this method of making a hard backup copy to save people some time and also give them peace of mind in knowing they always have the best of both worlds, a hard backup copy as well as if the hard copy was damaged they could always re-download.

Also another thing that concerned me is how long are these going to be available to download through EAdownloader, is there a set time period or is it forever and whenever you like especially considering the format/reinstall scenario. As in CD/DVD's can last indefinitely ( if cared for), will EAdownloader content be the same?

[javadog]

Re: EA EURO PURCHASE QUESION (SHAWN or someone EA plz)

the second part of what i did was simple.

after the reinstall of the OS and then EA Downloader, i logged into the downloader.

it showed me that i had Special Forces available for download. I went ahead and started the download and then canceled it. (this made it easier for me, because once you start a download, it builds the directory structure that the cache file goes into.

once i canceled the download i copied over the cache file(s) from my burnt dvd back into the EA directory structure. Relogged into the downloader, and it showed me that i had now Special Forces ready to install. I ran the installation, and part two (maybe part 1) of the 3 part setup is blowing up that cache file into a directory structure that the setup can then run out of. the standard place for this is:

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Downloader\cache\{youraccountname}\eagamesbf2-2006online_contentbf2-ep1


once there, you can take that full directory and burn that to a dvd and then run the stup directly from that.

-javadog